Where was progress made?

In the UK, rectal cancer survival went up from 48% to 62% over 20 years.

For colon cancer, there was good progress too - from 47% surviving for five years in 1995-99 to 59% in 2010-14.

In comparison, Ireland made similar improvements, and Denmark even greater ones.

Australia's survival increased to 71% for both rectal and colon cancer.

Pancreatic cancer had the lowest five-year survival of all - ranging from 7.9% in the UK (lowest) to 14.6% in Australia (highest).

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Cancer survival rates in UK compared to other countries

For lung cancer, Canada had the highest five-year survival (21.7%) while the UK had the lowest (14.7%).

All countries had similar improvements in survival from stomach cancer, while Norway saw the highest five-year survival for ovarian cancer (46%).

The improvements were better for the under-75s than the over-75s.

What are the reasons?

The researchers say steady improvements by all countries in the study are probably due to major healthcare reforms and advances in technology, which have led to earlier diagnosis, more effective treatments and better managing of patients.

Bowel (rectal and colon) had one of the largest increases in five-year survival.

John Butler, consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and Cancer Research UK's clinical adviser, said this was due to better surgical techniques, greater use of radiotherapy and more older patients being treated.

He added that improvements in the UK were the result of a combination of many different factors.